Similar to yours. Bilateral is one of the top albums of this decade, and Tall Poppy Syndrome has been my favourite Leprous album for a long time. I was quite disappointed with Coal, even if now I appreciate every song in it. When I read the tracklist and the song lenghts before the publication of Coal I expected other long songs in the style of Forced Entry, not something like Echo; I felt that Foe was a wasted opportunity because I loved the first part but I couldn't believe that it ended in that way... There was something in almost each song that didn't convince me entirely, it would be too long to point out everything now.
I agree with you that there are some difficult rhythmic parts which needs time to be appreciated on The Congregation. On The Price and especially on Third Law and Triumphant sample I didn't know at first listen if the hyper technical moments were out of place or too strange. I relistened only those samples plus the Slave one because they were the most interesting and I chose to forget the other songs.
I'm really curious about the Flood, Slave and Down from what I read from your review and other's! I only heard the first minutes of Slave and they are fantastic, and knowing it will end with harsh vocals... I don't know what to expect